Poll: Werner Herzog's Madness - Part 2

Werner Herzog

On the internet, some two or three dozen fake Werner Herzogs can be found, who partly answer questions on his behalf. The real one knows about this and could stop them, but considers the impostors his "unpaid body guards".

John Wayne in El Dorado (1966)

Born Werner Stipetić (after his mother), the young man adopted his father's name, which sounded more impressive. ("Herzog" means "Duke").

Yeardley Smith in The Simpsons (1989)

When asked whether he'd provide his voice for The Simpsons (1989), Herzog was puzzled. He was aware of the yellow figures, but thought they were advertising characters or something similar. Upon learning the "Simpsons" were a successful TV show running for over 20 years, he agreed to voice Walter Hottenhoffer in one episode.

Sylvester Stallone and Burgess Meredith in Rocky (1976)

Once said that if he opened a school for aspiring filmmakers, he would let them go boxing above all. This would not directly teach them making films, but physical fitness was an important requirement for a director.

Robert De Niro in Taxi Driver (1976)

This was his advice to young filmmakers: "Roll up your sleeves and work as a bouncer in a sex club or a warden in a lunatic asylum or a machine operator in a slaughterhouse. Drive a taxi for six months and you'll have enough money to make a film." He also said that "Film is not the art of scholars, but of illiterates."

Der Ring des Nibelungen (1980)

He stages operas but would never do a filmed opera because he finds the two forms incompatible.

Mick Jagger and The Rolling Stones in The Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus (1996)

In Fitzcarraldo (1982), Mick Jagger played the main character's sidekick before abandoning because of contractual duties. His character was found not to be played by anyone else and consequently excluded from the film.

Encounters at the End of the World (2007)

The only director to have made films on all of the seven continents.

Klaus Kinski in Aguirre, the Wrath of God (1972)

As someone whose most popular movies were made in the jungle, he thinks: "I don’t see [the jungle] so much erotic. I see it more full of obscenity. [...] The trees here are in misery, and the birds are in misery. I don’t think they sing. They just screech in pain. [...] But I love it against my better judgment."

Werner Herzog in Rescue Dawn (2006)

"TV uses landscapes. I transform landscapes - I direct landscapes."

Into the Abyss (2011)

For his documentary about death row inmates, Into the Abyss (2011), Herzog talked to a chaplain who would be with a convict right after the interview. He optimistically preached about paradise, forgiving and his fondness of animals. When asked by Herzog, "Tell me about an encounter with a squirrel.", the chaplain answered he nearly overran some squirrels with his golf cart; after telling this, he broke down, realizing he so soon was to assist an actual execution.

Joaquin Phoenix in I'm Still Here (2010)

Joaquin Phoenix once survived a car crash unharmed. While still sitting in the wreckage of his car, Werner Herzog tapped at his window, telling him to relax. Phoenix said, "I am relaxed" and Herzog replied, "No, you're not." He then broke the window, got Phoenix out and vanished. Gasoline had been leaking into the car.

Man spricht deutsh (1988)

Herzog doesn't like the Germans, and prefers to be called Bavarian.

Christian Bale in Rescue Dawn (2006)

He despises Cinema Verité and instead of being a "fly on the wall" wants to be a "bee that stings". Herzog made two films about the German-born American pilot Dieter Dengler, who escaped from a Laotian POW camp in 1966. His documentary, Little Dieter Needs to Fly (1997), is stylized (scenes in which a traumatized Dengler compulsively opens and closes doors were made-up for dramatic effect). However, the feature film Rescue Dawn (2006) tells his story quite faithfully.

Roger Ebert and Werner Herzog

Was friends with the late critic Roger Ebert, who helped call attention to his films in the US. Herzog also recommended Ebert to watch The Anna Nicole Show (2002), as she represented a "shift in our understanding of beauty". He also expressed a liking towards Wrestlemania.

Werner Herzog in Jack Reacher (2012)

He sees himself as a very sane and down-to-earth person, except for a dysfunction that disables his understanding of irony.